Category: Armenian Question

“The great Turk is governing in peace twenty nations from different religions. Turks have taught to Christians how to be moderate in peace and gentle in victory.”Voltaire’s Philosophical Dictionary

ISSUES TO CONSIDER ON THE 109TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ARMENIAN REBELLION IN VAN

ISSUES TO CONSIDER ON THE 109TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ARMENIAN REBELLION IN VAN

Historically, the Armenian Revolts in the City of Van played a major role in the implementation of a mandatory Relocation and Resettlement decision taken by the Ottoman Empire against the Armenian minorities. This decision was a direct result of the actions of the mutinous Armenians who rebelled against the Ottoman State and fought on the enemy side against their own country’s army.

Armenians, who had previously rebelled in Van, in 1896, ignited a new rebellion right before World War I. They used the church in Van’s Akdamar Island as a revolutionary committee headquarters, a weapons and munitions depot, and a center for torture and rape of the Muslim women they captured.

Armenians, who received a great deal of political support from the British, Russian and French Consuls, European missionaries in the region and the ABCFM missionaries affiliated with the US, had already begun their preparations for the occupation of Van, way before the onset of WWI.

Before the First World War, Armenian volunteers began gathering in the Cities of Muş, Van and Bitlis to fight against the Ottoman Empire, and (naturally) none of them responded to the mobilization calls of the Ottoman State.

Armenians who were serving under the Ottoman Military deserted their positions along with their issued weapons and crossed into the Russian territory with clear intent to defect into the Russian Army. When the Russian Caucasian Army attacked Eastern Anatolia, Ottoman Armenians were at the forefront, serving as vanguard units to the Russian Army.

Karekin Pastermadjian, who was an MP from Erzurum in the Ottoman Empire’s Congress, personally led the mutinous Ottoman Armenians who defected to Russia. Together, they massacred tens of thousands of Muslims in the City of Van and its surrounding regions.

Following the Russian Army’s crossing of the Turkish border, 33rd Infantry Division stationed in the City of Van moved out of the city to intercept the Russian enemy. Armenian gangs, who wanted to take advantage of the departure of the Ottoman troops out of Van, immediately formed an armed force of 40,000 men. Soon after, they began massacring the Turkish and other Muslim population in the City of Van and its surroundings. The Muslim population of Van ended up having to seek shelter at the Van Castle. Once the rebellion started in Van on April 15, 1915, Armenians first massacred the Gendarmerie Detachment stationed in the city and then the civilian population was next to be massacred.

The uprising and the massacres initiated by the Armenians in the City of Van, which intensified on April 20, 1915, caused the Muslim population to leave the city in panic, and a significant portion of those who fled the city lost their lives en route, due to Armenian attacks, starvation, and disease.

The fact that around 80,000 Muslims left the city in panic and began to flee in the direction of Bitlis in order to escape the great uprising that the Armenians started in the City Center of Van and the subsequent massacres they committed following the Russian Army’s occupation of Van, revealed to the Ottoman Administration that the Armenian revolts could not be prevented using local security measures. Hence, these events undoubtedly constituted the most important reasoning of the mandatory Relocation and Resettlement measure implemented against the Armenians.

Armenians burned down and destroyed all mosques and Muslim neighborhoods in the City of Van. Mutinous Armenians burned alive approximately 80 Turkish soldiers who were receiving in-patient treatment at the Van City Hospital. Captured Muslim women were taken by boat to the Armenian Church located on Van’s Akdamar Island to be raped. Some of these women chose to end their own lives by jumping off the boat into the cold waters of Lake Van, in order to not surrender their chastity. During the one-month period leading up to Russian Army’s complete seizure of the City of Van on May 18, 1915, Armenians under the leadership of the gang leader named “Aram” massacred 22,900 Turks.

Out of the 3,400 Muslim dwellings that existed within the Van Province before the war, were down to three houses standing, after the Armenians set the whole city ablaze and destroyed nearly all Muslim quarters of the city. Also, in the City of Bitlis, all 6,500 houses belonging to Muslims were burned to the ground by the Armenians.

According to the findings of US Historian Prof. Justin McCarthy, the number of Turks massacred in the Van Region was 194,167 people. According to the Ottoman Archival Documents, however, the number of Muslims murdered by Armenians in the Van Province and its subdistricts is 217,132 people. These indisputable archival documents clearly determine the identities of the murderers and their victims one-by-one, while providing explicit details on each massacre event in terms of place, time and how these crimes were committed.

Coming to today, Cities of Diyarbakır and Van are among those Eastern provinces that most intensively support PKK terrorism. The obvious cooperation between Armenians and separatist Kurdish elements that have long been wanting to establish an “independent Kurdistan” within the Turkish territories is clearly intensifying. In this context, many meetings have been held between BDP and HDP Parties and the Armenian Dashnak Party (aka ARF). As a result of these meetings, joint statements have been released such as: “[…] in addition to exploring the possibilities of Armenian-Kurdish cooperation in the lands of Western Armenia and Kurdistan, other areas of cooperation between the two nations have been discussed.”

Following the local municipal elections held on March 31, 2024, in Turkiye, the terrorist actions initiated by DEM Party supporters in these districts gives us the impression that they are preparing the groundwork to secede Turkiye’s Eastern and Southeastern Anatolian regions, ostensibly under the name of “Kurdistan” which, in reality, is bound to become “Western Armenia” later.

The appointment of a certain felon convicted of terrorism to Van’s Mayoral seat despite his earlier statements that “PKK is strong enough to drown us all in their spit”, contrary to the decision of the Diyarbakır High Criminal Court and Article 76 of the Turkish Constitution, clearly indicate the early signs of such a preparation. These developments indicate that the Armenian issue, and the separatist Kurdish political movement with which it is intertwined, are bound to become larger issues, capable of potentially threatening the very survival of the Turkish State.

As the grandchild of a family that had to leave their home behind and migrate westward in Anatolia, in order to flee from the Armenian oppression in Van, I have been following up for many years on how foreign (non-citizen) Armenians have been buying up large acreages of land in and around Van province using locals, while hiding their true identities.

The recent developments clearly indicate that the City of Van, which was once used as the ground zero point of the Armenian massacres against the Turks before the First World War, is now being used as the ground zero point of a secessionist attempt targeting Turkiye.

As a native of Van, I feel great sadness seeing all these things transpire, right before my eyes. In this context, I think it is important that the Turkish State’s intelligence agencies meticulously follow-up on the land purchases of Crypto-Armenians in Van and the contacts of elected local officials with terrorist organizations (such as PKK) so that the State can make the necessary interventions against violations of law when needed, without compromise.

I feel that it is my civic duty to warn the Turkish Statesmen and the patriotic People of Van, who lost 217,132 martyrs in WWI, to be vigilant about another potential Armenian uprising that could be ignited by these Crypto-Armenians based in Van, who hideously hide themselves behind Turkish and Kurdish identities. These people are obviously conspiring to start an uprising any minute, once they receive instructions from the “State of Western Armenia”, which claims to have been established “in exile”. This knock-off state preposterously claims that 19 provinces of Turkiye are Armenian territories, and they surely have the full support of the imperialist states who support them to see Turkiye divided.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ömer Lütfi Taşcıoğlu

Ret. Staff Col., Turkish Armed Forces

President of FEYM Group

VAN ERMENİ İSYANININ 109. YILDÖNÜMÜNDE DİKKAT EDİLMESİ GEREKENLER

July 7, 2024
Understanding the Armenian Question

Preface

Overcoming Prejudice and Hatred

The 1915 relocation was a dreadful operation for the Ottoman Armenians. It is undeniable that they suffered a great disaster with many innocent lives lost on their relocation routes.

The Armenian genocide lobby claims that the Ottoman government intentionally “marched Armenians to their deaths”, thus committing the first genocide in history, and that the relocation law was only a pretext for the extinction of Armenians. This allegation of genocide does not ring true. It has no historical evidence or legal framework. To term the events of 1915 as genocidze is to detach genocide from its legal definition and to use it for political or religious purposes.

No one has ever found any dependable documentary evidence to support the claim that the Ottoman government intended to exterminate the Armenians through relocation. On the contrary, there is considerable evidence of attempts to prevent such an outcome, though these were not very successful under the extraordinary conditions of World War I.

The 1915 relocation law introduced by the Ottoman government was a wartime security strategy and operational measure undertaken for reasons of urgent military necessity. The Ottoman Empire was fighting alongside Germany against Britain, France, and Russia. Armenians saw this as an opportunity to establish their own state and they revolted against the Ottoman Empire, of which they were citizens.

In Eastern Anatolia, tens of thousands of Armenians, including those under arms in the Ottoman army, fled to join the Russian Caucasian Army. Serving as scouts and advance units, they supported the Russian invaders. In Southern Anatolia, thousands of Armenian volunteers joined French Legion troops and took part in the occupation of numerous Ottoman provinces.

Those Armenians who stayed behind were also a great threat to the Ottoman war effort and to the lives of the Muslims of Eastern Anatolia. Just before the war, more than 12,000 Armenian males of fighting age had gone to Russia from Eastern Anatolia. There, they were trained in partisan and guerrilla tactics. Immediately after Russia declared war on the Ottoman Empire, they returned to Anatolia. Joining with others who had never left Turkey, as well as Armenian deserters from the Ottoman army, they organized guerrilla activities on both sides of the Ottoman frontier. Henry Morgenthau, the American Ambassador in Istanbul, reported to Washington on 25 May 1915 that nobody estimated the Armenian guerrillas to be “less than 10,000, and 25,000 thousand is probably closer to the truth”.

In the spring of 1915, when the British were at the Dardanelles, the Russians attacking in the east, and another British force apparently advancing on Baghdad, Armenian guerrilla activities had gained momentum all over Anatolia. Military supply and transport routes, and the communication channels of the Ottoman military units were sabotaged. Meanwhile the Armenian militias were attacking helpless Muslim villages in Eastern Anatolia and committing massacres against wholly innocent people. In some localities the entire Muslim population was killed. Armenian guerrillas were supported by Armenian villagers as well as by Armenians in the eastern cities that were home to leaders of their rebellion.

For the Ottoman leaders, the Armenian uprising was the deadliest of all national security threats. On 14 November 1922, the New York Times reported that a total of 200,000 Caucasian and Ottoman Armenian volunteers fought against the Ottoman Empire in World War I. In response, at approximately the same time that the Armenians seized the City of Van, the Ottoman government ordered that the Armenian population residing in or near war zones be relocated to the southern Ottoman provinces, away from the advancing Russian army. Armenians living away from the front, if reported or suspected to be enemy collaborators, were also relocated.

The Ottoman government took numerous measures for the care, protection and feeding of those subjected to deportation. However, under wartime conditions these measures were not fully implemented and unwanted suffering was not prevented. On the way to the south-eastern provinces, those being relocated were sometimes attacked by tribal gangs committing robbery or taking revenge for massacres of Muslims by Armenian bands, in some cases with the connivance of officials. Thousands of Armenians died in these attacks. The loss was multiplied by disease and famine.

In reaction, the Ottoman government investigated the crimes that had been committed. Hearings were held across the eastern provinces, followed by court-martials, at which nearly 1,000 gang members and more than 600 civilian officials or military personnel were sentenced to imprisonment and, in some cases, execution for the attacks on or abuse of the Armenians.

The Ottoman trials of 1915–1917, much before the end of war, unquestionably prove that the Ottoman government did not intend to exterminate Armenians through relocation. The number of Armenians who survived relocation also proves that there was no genocide. The well-known Armenian historian Richard Hovannisian has estimated that about 275,000 Ottoman Armenian refugees survived in post-war Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, and Iran. More than 100,000 Ottoman Armenians were in France, the United States, and elsewhere. These were survivors who had been completely in the hands of Ottoman soldiers and officials. Had the Ottomans wanted, they could have killed them all. Yet most of the relocated Armenians survived.

Detailing the suffering and losses during the relocation, even though they were not caused by genocide, is undoubtedly a humanitarian matter. However, this should be treated without prejudice and hatred while giving due scholarly attention to history and facts. The historical fact is that during World War I the suffering of Armenians was one of the many disasters that faced all the peoples of the Ottoman Empire. Those who lived in Anatolia, including Turks, Kurds, Armenians, Greeks, and Jews, suffered and made each other suffer.

Muslims were the dominant population in the Ottoman lands during World War I. This does not mean, however, that they were not affected by the devastation of this war. As revealed by the reports of some American missionaries, prior to the relocation ruling, Armenians also committed atrocious massacres in the villages they captured, including Van, which they occupied. In addition to the American archives, Russian, French, British, and German national archives are also full of documents recording the suffering inflicted on Muslims by rebel Armenian gangs both before and after the relocation. Moreover, the Greek occupation after World War I was also a period of extreme suffering for Muslims in Anatolia.

The painful human tragedies of war should be perceived holistically, without any racial and/or religious discrimination. These sufferings should be shared and, when necessary, mourned together. The perception of common suffering can only be realised by understanding the experiences of all Ottoman people, Muslims, and non-Muslims, together.

However, communicating the suffering in Anatolia during World War I faces two important obstacles today. These stem from the discriminatory and prejudiced approaches of those who try to impose the memory of relocation defined as “genocide”. The first obstacle is that the same sensitivity shown towards the suffering of Christians, especially Armenians, is not shown towards Muslims, Turks, and Kurds. The second is that the one-sided Armenian emphasis on such uffering overrides historical and legal facts and is used to support allegations of “genocide”.

“Genocide” is a legal concept. The classification of a historical event or a process as “genocide” can only be based on legal rulings, not personal convictions. In other words, the acknowledgement of suffering cannot change the definition of historical and legal facts.

Furthermore, the Malta Tribunal (1919-1921) which was conducted by the British Attorney General are key to establishing that the alleged Armenian genocide is a farce as it has no historical and judicial basis. The ruling of July 29,1921 corresponds to a “judgement of non-prosecution” which means, “if there is no legal evidence to support the Armenian massacre claims, there is no legal basis to file or bring a lawsuit”. As this ruling constitutes the first step to a court trial, the outcome of the Malta Tribunal is a final judicial decision consistent with the relevant description of 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention. Therefore, absolving the Ottoman Turks that “the “Armenian massacre”, or currently termed “genocide” allegations do not exist.”

This book aims to cleanse the debate on the “Armenian genocide” of prejudice, positioning it on historical and legal facts, and therefore preventing it from becoming a vicious “hate fight”. This is because prejudice nourishes discriminatory approaches. It damages our will to live together.

In order to overcome the prejudice surrounding the Armenian genocide and to be freed from the hatred fuelled by this prejudice, historical and legal facts must replace the “subjective-memory records” about the events of 1915, which have been transformed into some kind of “conscience fetishism”.

Historical and legal facts reveal that life is not black and white, but that there are shades of grey in between. This perspective allows us to see not only that the legitimate reasons for the 1915 relocation do not “justify” Armenian suffering, but also that the suffering inflicted does not eliminate the legitimate reasons for the practice. Historical and legal facts give us the opportunity to meet in this grey zone, which is free from prejudices, is no longer a vicious “hate discourse”, and opens the door to mutual tolerance.

My primary debt in writing this book is to Bilal Şimşir, a valuable researcher and diplomat who brought the events of the British H.M. Attorney General Office’s prosecution in Malta to Turkey’s agenda and opened his personal archives to me. I would also like to thank Jale (Swailes) Özer, President of the ADD (Atatürk Society UK), who provided me with the missing documents from the British archives.

My work on this book was made possible by the support of my wife, Nazime Gürkan, and my family. Without their patience and collaboration, it could not have been completed.

Uluç Gürkan, Ankara 2023

June 25, 2024
Armenian Genocide Lie, died and buried…

Oficina de Consultas al Parlamento
Cámara de Senadores
Av. de las Leyes s/n Montevideo CP 11.800

Dear Madam-Sir;

A few day ago Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan said at a meeting held behind closed doors: “Turkey did not commit genocide against Armenians. The genocide claim was invented by the USSR to worsen Turkey-Armenia relations.” he said.

Sad to say maintime On May 7, the Uruguayan Senate unanimously passed a bill declaring April 24 as “Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day.”

Please read this letter and keep it in your Parliament’s archive for the future bills about the same issue.

Respectfully yours

Oğuz Tolga
Yeşerti Sokak 4B-9
Beşiktaş İstanbul

Armenian Genocide Lie, died and buried…

I know you do not read the counter TRUTHS about Armenian issue but as a very close man to the god by your proffession please read this.

As I see ,with your all ignorance you are provoking the workd people with a “Genocide lie with long tail” about the Turks..

Please read this first and try to understand the matter clearly.Do never be funny in front of the history..

Tell me What would USA do if they were fighting with United allies, Russia & Mexico in the fictious 3 WW to establish a NEW MEXICAN STATE tyo unify with Mexico?.

What would USA do if American Hispanic USA citizens suddenly start to ware Mexican /French /Russian uniforms and kill women,old,children and handicapped Americans in their own homes in Texas and New Mexico when all men of the USA army were fighting in 14 fronts against the all the leding powers of the world…

Tell me what would USA do?

USA bombed Hirosima and Nagazaki killed 250.000Japanese people after a finished war for the revenge of PearlHarbour’s 2300 lost Americans.

But,Turks only deported Liar-menian(armenians are LIARS) traitor betrayers to another Ottoman Turks province from Van Bitlis and Mus Cities only to another Ottoman Province in today’s Syria,Der Zor…

Liar-menians have been insulting,spreading lies and slanders about “my People”” for 100years with a great inferiorty complex of beeing a traitor betrayer nation to their own state,Ottoman Empire in the beginning of the 20th Century with the provocations of Russians and British & French governments..

They have collaborated with the enemies(Russians in 1878-79/1914-15-French army in 1914-15),and wore their military uniforms and killed their own neighbors who have been living with them for atleast 13 centuries in Anatolia.

What should Turks do after those hostilities.?

See the betrayal from USA newspapers..You can easly check them.

) “Armenian Insurgent Bands Attack Kurds Near Erzeroum” Daily Gazette, 17

Nov 1899 NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Armenian Residents Kill Turkish Gendarmes” Davenport Morning Tribune,

Iowa, 9 Sep 1890 NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Armenians Attack Turks” Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, 15 Jul 1920, Nov 02

1895, Iowa NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Armenians Bands Attack Turks in Mush” Fort Wayne Sentinel, 22 Jan 1902

NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) Armenian Army Wants Aid To Set Up New Nation, Out For Independence, Fort

Wayne, Indiana, 14 Dec 1918 NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Armenians Attack Tartar Village” Monitoba Free Press, 15 Nov 1905

NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Armenians Destroy Seventeen Villages, Insurgents Are Active In Sassun

Area” Post Standard, 19 May 1904, Syracuse, New York NewsPaper’s Actual

ScreenShot !

) “French Attempt To Invest Asia Minor Frustrated By Turks” Armenian

Volunteers Make Landing Possible Are Wiped Out, San Antonio Light 19 Apr

1920 NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Armenians Burn Turks, Constantinople” Tyrone Herald, Pennsylvania, Dec

20, 1905 NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Sassoun Massacre:Proof Of Assertion that Armenian Revolutionists Caused

It” NewYorkTimes Aug 23, 1895 NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “America And The Armenians” Reno Evening Gazette, Nov 14, 1915

NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Armenians Begin Religious Assault:Attack Turks” ProgressReview, Nov 02

1895, Iowa NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Armenians Destroy Village Massacre 400 Tartars” NewYorkTimes Nov 15,

1905 NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Armenians Attack Turks And Tartars” Daily Dorthwestern Oct 12, 1920

NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Armenians Attack Turkish Villagers” Newport Daily Oct 25 1895

NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Armenians, Not Turks Set Smyrna Ablaze” Relief Worker Declares: San

Antonio Express, 1923-01-22 NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

“Armenian Army Approaching Erzerum” Bismark Daily Tribune, 13 Nov 1914

NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Armenians Ready To Side With Russians” Elyria Evening Telegram, 13 Nov

1914 NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “General Antranik Ozanian, Famous Armenian General, Engaged In Many

Battles Against the Turks, Dies ” Fresno Bee, 31 Aug 1927 NewsPaper’s

Actual ScreenShot !

) “Armenians Aiding Russians Besiege Turkish Town Van ” Manitoba Free

Press, 7 Nov 1914 NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Erzerum Taken From Turks By Armenian Corps, Aided By Detachment Of

Armenian Volunteers” Oakland Tribune, 4 Apr 1918 NewsPaper’s Actual

ScreenShot !

) “Armenian Insurgents, Uprising in Van” Post Standard Syracuse, 6 Sep

1904 NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Fresno Armenian Weekly Editor Welcomes Gen Antranik, Headed Armenian

Volunteers Against Turks” Van Nuys News, 14 may 1920 NewsPaper’s Actual

ScreenShot !

) “Russian Troops Linked with Greek and Armenian Civillians As The

Perpetrators” New York Times, 22 Oct 1915 NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Armenian Rebels Advance” New York Times, 6 Sep 1904 NewsPaper’s Actual

ScreenShot !

) “5 Armenian Revolutionary Societies To Bring About The Ruin of The

Ottoman Empire” New York Times, 24 Sep 1896 NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot

“170 Armenian Bombs Exhibited” New York Times, 23 Sep 1896 NewsPaper’s

Actual ScreenShot !

) “Armenian Bomb Factory was Discovered Near Kassim Pasha Cemetery” New

York Times, 12 Sep 1896 NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Armenians Are pardoned : Turkish Amnesty To Zeitoun” New York Times, 14

Feb 1896 NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Armenians Insurgents Massacred All The Turkish Soldiers at Zeitoun” New

York Times, 21 Dec 1895 NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Armenians landed with Arms and Bombs” New York Times, 15 Dec 1895

NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Aggression Of Armenians” New York Times, 2 Nov 1895 NewsPaper’s Actual

ScreenShot !

) ” Mosque, School and Bazaar : Armenians Set Fire ” New York Times, 15

Dec 1891 NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Armenians Accused of Massacre. Tartar Complaints” The Times London, 19

Mar 1920 Page 15 NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “8.000+ Armenian Volunteers fighting for the Russians in Turkey”

Armenian Red Cross To The Times Editor : The Times London 12 Jan 1915 Page

7 NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Welcomed Russians in Armenia Entered Turkey” Atlanta Constitution, 1914

11 07 NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Druse Tribe Revolt Spreads” Indiana Evening Gazette, 1925, August 13

NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Armenian Volunteers in Victory Over Turks” Nevada State Journal, 1918,

10 05 NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Armenian Bands Preparing To Invade Ottoman Territory” Oakland Tribune,

1905, May 10 NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Istanbul Robert College Educated General Mesrob Azgapetian Titled For

His War Services Against Turkey,” Republican And Times, 1922 02 0

NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

“150 000 Armenian Volunteers in Russian Army Were The Only Forces

Against Turks: Boghos Nubar, Paris” Times of London , 1919 Jan 30

NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Threatening Letters From Armenian Revolutionionary Committee” Liverpool

Courier, 1897 08-23 NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Bomb Outrage in Constantinople Eight Armenians Arrested” Liverpool

Courier, 1897 08-21 NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Armenian Raiders From Turkish Territory on Turco-Persian Frontiers”

Bristol Times And Mirror, 1897-09-29 NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Reported Armenian Aggression – Terrible Barbarities” Liverpool Courier,

1897-08-10 NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Armenians Aid Russians Against Turks” Tyro Herald, 1914 12-10

NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Four Hundred Cleveland Armenians Waiting to Call Back to Armenia To

Fight Turkey” Lima Daily News, 1914 11-02 NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Mahommedans Plan To Aid Co-Religionists – Barbarities By Armenians”

NYT, 1905 June 26 NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Four Villages Reduced To Ashes by Armenians” Lima Times Democrat 1906

Sep 19 NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Armenians Join Russians and Scatter Turks Near Feitun” Washington Post,

1914 November 13 NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Armenians Fight For Russia” Reno Evening Gazette London 1915 Jan 7

NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) Russians Take Turks’ Fort Near Erzerum, In Pursuit of Turkish Cavalry

Armenian Students Enthusiastic Volunteers in Petrograd” NYT, 1914 November

NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Armenians Fighting Turks, Besieging Van Others Operating Turkish Army’s

Rear” ” NYT, 1914 November 7 NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Russians Win Van District” New Oxford, 1916-24-2 NewsPaper’s Actual

ScreenShot !

“(Armenians) From America To Fight” NYT, 1915 January 8 NewsPaper’s Actual

ScreenShot !

) “Armenians Join Russians” Indianapolis Star, 1915-1-08 NewsPaper’s

Actual ScreenShot !

) “Armenians Aiding Russians in Campaign Against Turkey” Fort Wayne News,

1914-11-07 NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Armenians Active in European War” Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette,

1914-11-13 NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Armenian Volunteers Are To Increased to 15.000” Daily Kennebec Journal,

1914 May 28 NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

“Armenians in Revolt” Centralia Enterprise and Tribune, 1895-11-12

NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) NYT: 18 Oct 1915 : “Dangerous Rebel Armenians Betray Their Rulers, Take

Refuge in Christian Missions : The Kind of Armenians A Turk Knows”

NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) NYT: 22 Nov 1915 : “Rebel Turk Djemal Pasha Orders 2 Turkish Band Chiefs

Be Hanged For ill Treatment of Armenians” NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) NYT: 14 Nov 1920 : “Armenians Complain of French” NewsPaper’s Actual

ScreenShot !

) NYT: 13 Nov 1914 : “Turkish Armenians Refuse To Join Turkish Army –

Ready To Join Russian Invaders for Armed Revolt” NewsPaper’s Actual

ScreenShot !

) NYT: 2 May 1928 : “Huncak (Agitates Against Turkish Rule) Editor S

Sapah-Gulian Dead” NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) NYT: 15 Dec 1903 : “Armenian Revolt Likely” NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) NYT: 4 Aug 1940 “Armenian Military Hero, General Sebooh Arshak

Nersesian, Who Fought Against The Turks In 1920, Died At 66″ NewsPaper’s

Actual ScreenShot !

) NYT: 22 Jun 1935 “Armenian Patriot Miran Sevasly Dead: He Helped Raising

10.000 Armenians To Fight Against Turkish Front In Armenian Legion “

NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) NYT: 8 Jan 1915 “Armenians From America, Arrived In Tiflis, To Serve

With The Russian Army Against Turkey” NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) NYT: 9 Oct 1915 “Why We Aid Armenians: It’s Because We’re Bought by

Anglo-French Gold” NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) NYT 13 May 1947 “James Chankalian, Won Honors, in Organising 300

Armenian Volunteers To Fight Against Turkey” NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot

!

) NYT 29 Sep 1915: “Armenians Brought Reprisals on Themselves by Trying to

Stir Up Rebellion Against Turkey” “ARMENIANS’ OWN FAULT-Bernstorff”

NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

“Turkish Garrisons Attacked by Armenian Rebels” The Washington Post,

1904 Aug 10 NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Armenian Rebels Killed 20, Wounded 23, in Turkey” The News, 1904 May 2

NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Armenians Aiding Russians In Campaign Against Turkey” Fort Wayne News,

1914 Nov 7 NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) 2532) “Armed Armenians Kill Many” Muscatine Journal 19 Dec 1905

NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Armenian Rebels Attack Town, Turkish Troops Fight Insurgents” Reno

Evening Gazette Sep 13 1904 NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Armenians Kill Turks” Manitoba Free Press 1916-02-22 NewsPaper’s Actual

ScreenShot !

) “Armenians Go To Europe To Fight For The Allies” Racine Journal-News

1917-08-31 NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

) “Armenians Kill Azeri Turks (Tartars)” La Crosse Tribune, 1906-09-19

NewsPaper’s Actual ScreenShot !

Armenian Rebellion: Feilding Star, 5 Sep 1905

Turks Were Defeated By The Armenian Army: NYT 29 Jun 1918

Armenian Priests Acted As Guides For Russian Army To Get To Van: Evening

Post 9 Dec 1914

Armenian Students Join Russian Army In Caucasus : Evening Post 4 Nov 1914

“Armenia Wants US Against Hun” -Miami Metropolis 27-Mar-1919

“Hentchakist Bands Invade Turkish Territory” NY Times 10-Nov-1903

” Tacitly Encouraged by Russia, Armenians Cross Turkish Frontier” NY Times

17-May-1903

“Boxes Of Rifles, Ammunition & Dynamite in Armenian Church”

Feb13-31Jan1908-St.Petersburg Telegraph Agency

“Future Glorious Armenia Should Not Be Limited To Turkish Land, But Must

Cover Themselves & Russian Land” Nov11-29Oct-1903-Moscow-Paper

“5000 Armenian Revolters in Adana Preparing For Aggressive Action” NY

Times 15 Nov 1895

“Armenians Prefer Sultan’s Rule Not Emperor Nicholas” NY Daily Tribune

25-Aug-1907

“Armenians Armed With Revolvers & Spiked Staves, Dragged Armenian

Patriarch From Pulpit” NY Times 29-July-1890

“Armenian Revolt With The Help & Encouragement From Trans-Caspian

Armenians in Russia” NY Times 13-Oct -1903

“Armenians Responsible For Premeditated Riots” NY Times 25-Oct-1895

“Gen Spiridowitch Organizing Armenians In NewYork For A Revolt In Turkey”

NY Times 20-May-1907

“Turkish Armenians In Armed Revolt Ready To Join Russian Invaders, Having

Drilled & Collected …” NY Times 13 Nov 1914

“Armenian Riots” Clutha Leader – 11 Oct 1895

“Sassoun Massacre -Proof – Armenian Revolitionists Caused It” NY Times 23

Aug 1895

“Armenian Bands Formed To Attack & Kill Turks or Kurds” NY Times 18 Jan 1894

“Armenians Have Plotted To Arouse Sympathy” NY Times 4 Oct 1895

“Turks Hang Kemal Bey For Armenian Massacres” NYT 14 Apr 1919

“Turkish Garrisons Attacked By Armenian Rebels” Washington Post, 10th Aug

1904

“Fighting In Sasun -Armenian Rebels” The News, May 2 1904

“False Info Circulated By The Armenian Agitators” NYT, Nov 3 1895

“Armenian Question: England And America Cannot Afford To Throw Stones”

NYT, 23rd Sep 1895

“Armenian Rebels Taken In Hand” -Evening Bulletin, Hawaii, USA, May 16, 1903

“26.000 ‘Christian’ Armenians In Revolt” -Guthrie Daily Leader, Oklahoma,

Nov, 1 1895

“Armenians In Van Rise In Arms Against Turks” -Washington Times, May 12, 1915

” Plot To Blow Up Foreign Consulates By Armenian Rebels’ Dastardly Plan”

-San Francisco Call -20 Aug 1905

” Turks Battle With Rebels” -San Francisco Call -19 May 1904

“Were The Armenian Stories Of Atrocities Only Fabrications? ” -Daily

Bulletin, April 25, 1895

After all these TRUTHS Here are some questions for you to ask to your Liar-menian friends..I know They will never answer them..But please try at least ,ones..

1) Why was every single Ottoman official, incarcerated for war crimes during the nearly two-and-a-half years of the Malta Tribunals, finally acquitted?

THIS IS THE QUESTION THAT WOULD PUT AN END TO THE “ARMENIAN GENOCIDE” MATTER, TO ANY LOGICAL MIND. I HAVE NOT SEEN THE MALTA TRIBUNALS REFERRED TO IN ANY OF THE ARMENIAN WEB SITES.

2) The “Sick Man of Europe” was on her knees, financially broke and depleted of manpower (thanks to German-directed military mobilization) and needed resources. Why would the empire choose this most inopportune time to target the Armenians, who made the financial wheels turn and were clearly a vital resource to the country?

3) The “Sick Man of Europe” was on her knees, financially broke. Why would she spend a fortune on resettling the Armenians?

If the idea was to wipe them out, why didn’t they massacre them on the spot, as the Armenians did with the Turks?

4) Could the Ottoman Turks have the TECHNOLOGICAL capacity to carry out a government-sponsored genocide on such a grand scale?

5) If the idea of the resettlement program was to subject the Armenians to a slow, genocidal death, why did so many Armenians survive?

If there was a true government sponsored policy of extermination, why leave the barely-living starved alive? In short, it all boils down to: how could the great majority…one million out of less than one and a half million… have survived?

6) Why then, would the Turks fool around by going through the musical chairs of separating the men (remember, the Armenians claim the men were largely unarmed)?

Also, why were there supposedly so many orphans?

If a government has in mind to wipe out a race, why leave so many children alive?

The Armenians didn’t intend to leave the Turkish children alive.

7) Hitler began by targeting the Jews in Berlin. Why were the Armenians in Istanbul and other cities of the West such as Izmir, left alone for the most part?

The Armenians say this was because these cities were under too much foreign observation. However, the Ottomans were aware, after generations of being subjected to capitulations, that foreign posts were set up even in the distant corners of the empire… as readily under foreign observation.(American consuls of these out-of-the-way distant provinces, such as Leslie Davis [the genocide-proving “big gun” highlighted in the PBS pro-Armenian programs covered at this site], were among them. In addition, the missionaries were everywhere.)

As a related point, “Talat Pasa allowed the American missionaries to do relief work among the Armenians, in spite of the fact that Turkey and the United States were on the opposing camps during the war.

How many examples are there in history of a combatant country permitting the citizens of another country fighting in the other camp to stay, feed, cloth and educate the people it is accused of exterminating?

9) The Armenian perspective never fails to offer the convictions Turkish courts laid out to their own officials immediately after the war, and the Sevres Treaty, which partly proclaimed a large chunk of Eastern Turkey to be part of Armenia.

For a better proof of judging whether a genocide occurred, one must look at the Treaty of Leninakan (Gümrü) signed (December 3, 1920) by the Armenians and Turks, which closed the book on past ills, foregoing the issue of reparations.

If the Armenians were truly outraged over the Turks’ Nazi-like evil campaign to exterminate them, how could they have agreed to such terms?

“If the Ottoman Empire really did commit the crime of genocide from 1915-1919, as Armenians allege, then why would the newly established Armenia turn to the Ottoman Empire for help in 1918, 1919, or 1920?

10) As yet another follow-up, why didn’t Armenian delegate to the Paris Peace Conference, Boghos Nubar Pasha, mention the “genocide” in his January 30, 1919 letter to The Times of London?

Dear Sir,

The Liar-menians havent decide the date and figures of the victims of the so-called genocide,yet and they haven’t got even a single original documents in the Yerevan Museum of Genocide..

You need to ask some more questions to the Museum authorities too.

-Did turks kill 1.500.000 of your people in 1915

or

-Did Turks kill 1.500.000 of your people from 1890s to 1920s?

-If they killed your people all in 1915 how could they do it when they were fighting in 14 fronts in 1915 including Gallipoli and Dardanelles war with all the Allies.

-Even Hitler could kill,burn and bury 1.200.000 Jews in Auchswitz in 3 years with a great technology and man power.

-ANCA Made a discount of 500.000 on Genocide Victims recently hahahaha

Look at their letter to Coca Cola…on 24.th of April,2013…

“”””” Dear Members of the Coca-Cola Company’s Board of Directors:

We are writing to express our profound concern regarding the Coca Cola Company’s association with an organization that has, for many years, orchestrated a hateful public campaign to deny the Armenian Genocide, a government sponsored campaign that killed over 1,000,000 men, women and children because of their Armenian ethnicity and Christian faith.”””

Aram Hamparian

Executive Director, Armenian National Committee of America”””””

It was “Over 1.500.000 last year and this year they said Over 1.000.000.Who knows the figures of the next year’s campaign?

-If the Turks killed Liar-menians one by one from 1890s to 1920 why at least 15.000Armenian public servants in Ottoman empire including Ministers,Ambassadors,Consuls, second Consuls and other servants did not move their even a single finger and warn USA or Europe for the GENOCIDE?

Were Armenian Bureucrats in Ottoman Empire the collabrators of the Genocide?

Those armenian pashas and bureaucrats worked for the ottoman empire between the years of 1900-1919…

IMAGINE;you are an Armenian Bureaucrat and Turks kill 1.500.000 of your people one by one in 10 years and you keep working as a authorised bureaucrat…..for the EMPIRE to make their life easier.

Particularly in the 19th century, twenty-nine Armenians were granted the highest governmental rank of Pashas.

• There were twenty-two Armenian ministers in Ottoman Administration, including the Ministers of Foreign Affairs,

Finance, Treasury, Trade and Post, with other Armenians holding high positions at the departments in charge of agriculture, economic development, and the census.

• There also were thirty-three Armenian representatives appointed and elected to the Ottoman Parliament, seven ambassadors, eleven consuls-general and consuls, eleven university professors, and forty-one other officials of high rank.

• In the beginning of the twentieth century, during the Balkan Wars, Mr. Gabriel Noradukyan, an Ottoman Armenian, served as the Foreign Minister of the Ottoman Empire.

• Agop Kazakyan served as the Minister of Finance and Sakiz Ohannes Pasha as the Minister of Treasury.

• lyas Çayan Efendi was the President of the Council of State.

• Osgan Mardikyan was the Minister of Communication.

• Ohannes Ferit Efendi (Van), Ohannes Asasyan (Elaziz, L. Ayciyan ve Ant Billoryan (Erzurum) served as the Deputy Governors in the eastern provinces of Turkey.

THE LIST OF THE ARMENIAN BUREUCRATS AND CIVIL SERVANTS IN THE LATE OTTOMAN ERA:

THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Gabriel Noradukyan (Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1912) Ohannes Kuyumcuyan (Deputy Undersecretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs between 1909 and 1913)

DEPUTY COUNSELLORS ON LEGAL AFFAIRS IN THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Edvar Bey(until 1908) Hirant Bey Abro (until 1917)

CONSULS AND DIPLOMATS

Hrant Düz (Messina/Italy)

Hovsep Misakyan Efendi (The Hague/Netherlands)

Ohannes Magakyan Efendi (Deputy Consul/Oziçe-Serbia)

Mihran Kavafyan Efendi (Consul General/France)(in 1907 Counsellor – Plenipotentiary/ Belgium)

Sekip Efendi (First Secretary Berlin/Germany)

Harutyun Markaryan Efendi(First Secretary/Belgrade)

Hovsep Azaryan Efendi (Consul General/Malta)

Sarkis Balyan Efendi (Consul Bari/Italy)

Dikran Hünkarbegendiyan (Deputy Consul Odessa/Russia)

Levon Bey Yeremyan (Second Secretary/Paris)

Diran Bey Dadyan (Second Secretary/Brussels)

Levon Bey Yeremyan (Second Secretary/Paris)

Minas Yeram Efendi (Deputy Consul /Zanta)

Ohannes Nafilyan Efendi (Deputy Consul /Tbilisi)

Hrant Bey Noradukyan (Deputy Consul /Galaç-Romania)

Arsen Efendi (Deputy Consul/Newcastle/Britain Patras/Greece)

MINISTRY OF TREASURY

Sakiz Ohannes Pasha (Minister, between the years 1897 and 1908)

MINISTRY OF FINANCE

Agop Kazakyan (Minister).

They have betrayed their own Empire State…

The OTTOMAN EMPIRE was their own state too like Turks and they have backtabbed the Turks when all the Turkish men in the 14 fronts and fighting against the Allies…

-How many Armenians have been killed?

1.750.000 ?

1.500.000 or 800.000 or 350.000?

Noone knows but just telling lies..

Why don’t you send an email and ask the Armenian Genocide Museum if they have a single original document about the genocide in the whole museum.

Hayk Demoyan

director@genocide-museum.am

Suren Manukyan-

science@genocide-museum.am

British and French/Italian/Greek ,Russian and even USA armies occupied Istanbul and 4/5 of Turkey after 1WW and Armenian authorities searched and read all the archieved documents for 4 years..

They have taken 144 people in and send them to Malta to judge as “So-called Armenian Genocide Suspects”..

What happened then?

Brits released them all after 3 years of investigation in Turkish Ottoman Archieves..

Because they saw the realities and the Truths..

The deception of the LIAR-menians ,now continues for 93 years, 2 months, and 27 days.

The other side of the FALSIFIED GENOCIDE

please visit http://www.tallarmeniantale.com/ to have more information.I know you will never do that but you have to know the Truth and the Genocide of the TRUTHS by LIAR-menians..

There are thousands of Armenian web sites telling their story of inferiority agaist Turks.But there is only one website from the Turks make them mad.Why ?

Why Armenian storytellers yelling this much .

Let me tell you.

If you are not familiar with this “”armenian fairy tale”” and read

www.tallarmeniantale.com web site first other thousands zillions billions websites of “”funny armenian storytellers””look like Charlie Chaplin’s silent movies.

A lot of actions but no sound.

They all know that during Ottoman and Turks period of nearly 2000years in anatolia,Armenian anatolians were the number one important people to the sultans even more important than Turks.

Because they are christians in a great community of moslems so they should be protected safely.This ended in the 1.world war.

Armenian idiots united with Russian and French armies wore their uniforms and started killing moslems everywhere they found weak.

Yes ottoman Turks were fighting with English,French,Italian,Greek,Russian and Arab armies in 14different fronts from Iran border to Libya,from Rumania to yemen.

but armenians opened another front and killed Turks on their backs.

Ottoman officials decided to deport them.On the ways they died because of that time’s misery and some small fights with dome kurdish tribes etc .

Nobody killed them planned it is a terrible lie.

All christian world knows this but all christian world has hypocratic face and dinayed this reality with cold blood.

Even Armenian diaspora knows the truth but they are in a position to sell this “”so called fairy tale””for their future and never giveup.

Poor armenian people in Armenia is very busy with this tale and forgotten all their daily needs and keep living in powerty and the government of Armenia is cheating their own people with using this instrument to rule them.

of course armenian merchants of “”so called tale sellers””are not feeling comfortable in their seats.

They realised that Turks left their old politics of “”silence” ” ; ;and started to show their real faces.

They opened their all files of 2billios papers to all the historians and demanded the same thing from Armenian government.

They refused to show even one document and they were right.

Because if they open their files all the world historians will come and see the vodvils of the armenian story tellers and start fooling them .

This is the all story.

Other stories need proofs and they have none:))

See their Case to European Court of Justice and the VERDICT of the Court below..

C-18/04 P – Krikorian and Others [Case closed]

Main proceedings

Order – 29/10/2004 – Krikorian and Others

Case C-18/04 P

Reports of Cases

Not published

(Appeal Case before the General Court T-346/03)

Proceedings for interim measures 1

Order – 13/09/2004 – Krikorian and Others

Case C-18/04 P

Reports of Cases

Not published

(Appeal Case before the General Court T-346/03)

http://www.topix.com/forum/world/

armenia/TECB6U60MI5SPA8NN/p9#l astPost

WHAT DID EUROPEAN COURT OF JUSTICE SAY?

WHAT WAS THE VERDICT OF THE COURT ABOUT GENOCIDE ALLEGATIONS?

“””European Court of Justice””” ” decided to reject

Liarmenian Trial attempsts

2 times in 2003

and 2004

with the reason of

NO EVIDENTS NO PROOFS ALL POLITIC DECISIONS AND POLITICAL DECISIONS MAY BE CHANGED WITH EVERY NEW ELECTED PARLIEMENTS.

17 December 2003.

Trial Case nr.T-346/03

Chancellor

H.Jung

President

B.Vesterhoff

Judge.

P.Mengozzi

Judge.E.Riberio

Accuser.Name .

Gregorie Kirkorian

Suzanne Kirkorian

European Union Of Armenian

16 January 2004

Trial Case Nr.of the Supreme Court of the European Court Of Justice was C-18/04

If you are an puppet player and all the poor armenians are your puppets would you be happy .

June 25, 2024
FACTS ABOUT APRIL 24, 1915

FACTS ABOUT APRIL 24, 1915:

THE DATE COMMEMORATED BY ARMENIANS AS “GENOCIDE DAY”

April 24, which Armenians widely accept as the “date of genocide”, has nothing to do with the mandatory relocation and resettlement decision implemented against the Armenians. The decision to migrate a certain portion of the minority Ottoman Armenian population was taken later on May 27, 1915.

April 24, however, is the date of three important decisions that were made, on details of which I shall below elaborate.

1. April 24 is the date on which mutinous Armenian Committee centers were shut down.

During the First World War (WWI), while the Ottoman Empire was fighting its enemies on eight separate fronts, five of which being primary and three being secondary fronts, Armenians who were carried away by the empty promises of the imperialist states rebelled to establish an “independent Armenia” on the territories of the Ottoman Empire. While the Ottoman Armies were fighting their enemies on multiple fronts, they were also having to fight behind the front lines to suppress these Armenian rebellions. The suppression of these rebel and criminal elements necessitated the Ottoman Empire to divide and allocate its military forces in the face of the enemy to ensure public order. This situation created a very serious security vulnerability that weakened the military operations of the Ottoman (Turkish) Army.

Aiming to establish an “independent Armenia” by changing the demographic structure of the regions in which they rebelled, “revolutionary” Armenian factions formed into armed gangs and began perpetrating massacres in Turkish villages, which consisted only of women, children and elderly people as men capable of bearing arms were already drafted into the military. In addition to these massacres, Armenians made many other attempts to inflict real harm on the Ottoman Army.

Armenians who were under arms deserted their positions in the Ottoman Army along with their issued weapons, joined the ranks of the enemy armies, and entered Anatolia as defected vanguard units of the Russian Caucasian Armies. On the Iraqi and Palestinian fronts, 8,000 Armenians fought on the side of the British Army, against the Turkish Army. The Armenians that remained behind, spied for the enemy armies, and attacked the Turkish Army’s supply convoys. Armenian bakers poisoned Ottoman Soldiers by adding arsenic poison into the breads they baked.

Despite all warnings, mutinous Armenians continued to massacre innocent civilians and disrupt the military operations of the Ottoman Army. Hence, the Ottoman Empire made a decision to shut down the Armenian Committee Centers, confiscate their weapons and documents, and arrest the committee leaders on April 24, 1915. In this context, 226 Armenian committee leaders were arrested in Istanbul.

Thousands of cached weapons, munitions and bombs were seized during the searches conducted by the Ottoman authorities in the homes and workplaces of these 226 arrested committee leaders. 155 of the arrested committee leaders were sent to the City of Çankırı and 71 were sent to Ayaş District. However, not all of the arrested (persons) were put in prison. Those sent to Çankırı were interned in summer houses in groups of two or three and were allowed to roam freely in and around the city. They were only required to visit the police station once a day to prove that they did not leave the area.

Armenians named Mardiros (son of Arshak) and Arshak Diradoryan, who were being kept under supervised surveillance, stated to the Ottoman authorities that their financial situations deteriorated due to their prolonged internments and requested financial aid. Their requests for financial aid were accepted. 35 of the Armenians who were sent to Çankırı were later found innocent upon trials and were allowed to return to Istanbul. 3 of the 7 Armenian foreign committee leaders were deported and 31 Armenians were pardoned by the Ottoman State. Three of the committee leaders held in Ayaş District were later released due to the signing of Armistice of Mudros, and the remaining ones were released upon the occupation of Istanbul by the British occupation forces.

One of them, named Gomidas Vartabed, was interned in the City of Çankırı for a duration of only 13 days. He was later pardoned along with his 7 comrades, and all were allowed to return to Istanbul. Vartabed later came down with an illness in 1917 and went to Vienna to receive treatment. He later moved to France in 1919 and died in Paris, in 1935. A statue was later erected in Paris, in the name of Gomidas Vartabed, with the following phrase written underneath: “Turks massacred 1.5 million Armenians”. This alone should suffice to reveal the invalidity of the Armenian claims and the extent of history fraud they have been committing.

2. April 24 was the date on the morning of which enemy forces were to land in Gallipoli.

April 24 was also the date on the morning of which the British, French, Indian and ANZAC troops were to land on the Gallipoli Peninsula and report to their battle stations. As a matter of fact, Commander of the 19th Division, Staff Lieutenant Col. Mustafa Kemal, ordered his division to move to the coastal areas where the enemy was likely to land on the night of April 24, 1915.

Had the Armenian committee leaders in Istanbul not been arrested on April 24, internal uprisings would have been ignited inside the areas controlled by the Ottoman Military, especially in Istanbul, in synchronicity with the landing operations of the enemy troops which was to occur in the morning of April 25, 1915. This would essentially leave the Ottoman Army between crossfires and severely weaken the defense of Çanakkale. At the end of the war, the plan was that England, France, and Russia (aka the “Triple Entente”) would seize the Ottoman Capital, Istanbul, dismantle the Ottoman Empire and establish for Armenians a sovereign Armenian State. This is what was promised to the rebellious Ottoman Armenian political factions. However, when the leaders of the rebellion were arrested in a timely fashion on April 24, the plans of both the Armenians and the imperialist states that promised them sovereignty were averted. Armenians, whose hopes of establishing an “independent Armenia” were dashed forever with the arrest of the Committee leaders on April 24, 1915, cannot help but commemorating this day every year as if it were a day of national disaster even though this date has nothing to do with the mandatory relocation and resettlement decision.

As the rebel Armenians continued with their rebellions and massacres, even after the decision to arrest the committee leaders, the Ottoman Empire, in consultation with her ally, Germany, decided to forcibly migrate them on May 27, 1915. In this context, under the state’s self-defense doctrine, the Ottoman Empire decided that the mutinous Armenians who formed into gangs and massacred civilians would have to be removed from the regions they inhabited and be forcibly transferred to provinces such as Damascus and Mosul. This was no “mass deportation” as widely claimed by some historians though because these places were still Ottoman territories at the time but were far away from the war zone. However, not all Armenians in Anatolia were subjected to relocation, either. Those who were subjected to mandatory relocation were under such orders on a temporary basis only. They were later allowed to return to their places of residence once the orders of temporary relocation were lifted by the Ottoman Minister of Interior, Talat Pasha.

Before the onset of WWI, some of the Ottoman Armenians in Anatolia immigrated to other countries of their own accord, while some of them stated that they decided to change their religion and become “Muslims”, in order to elude the mandatory migration orders. 87% of the 438,758 Armenians who were relocated, safely reached their relocation destinations. The Armenian losses en route, during this period of mandatory relocation is 56,610 persons. This number, in fact, includes those who escaped from the convoys during relocation and returned home and those who died from various diseases. The number of Ottoman soldiers who died from epidemics in the same period was 466,759 persons. 9 times more Turks than the Armenian losses incurred during the mandatory relocation practice (518,105 persons) were directly killed by Armenian rebels, inside Anatolia. And 7 times more Turks (413,000 persons) were killed by Armenians in the Trans-Caucasia, as historians and researchers later found out.

3. April 24 is the date when a “Mandatory Migration Decision” was made for the Turks

The importance of April 24 date for the Turks, however, is based on reasons quite different. When the Russian Army crossed the Turkish border and began invading Eastern Anatolia, under the guidance of the Armenian vanguard units who deserted their positions in the Ottoman Army along with their issued weapons, thus effectively joining the Russian Army, Armenians residing in the region around the City of Van formed into gangs and began massacres in the City Center of Van (as well as surrounding districts and villages). Taking advantage of the fact that only the Gendarmerie Detachment remained in the City of Van upon the 33rd Infantry Division leaving the city to intercept the Russian Army, the Armenians burned down the Ottoman Bank, the Public Collections (“Duyunu Umumiye”) Building and the Post Office in Van on April 20, 1915, while setting ablaze all Muslim quarters of the city.

During this period, Armenians massacred 22,900 Muslims, within one month, in the Van Province alone. During the period in which Armenian gangs’ attacks on the Muslim civilians intensified, Van Governor Cevdet Bey tried to ensure the safety of the people who were stuck outside the Van Castle by allowing them to take refuge inside the castle. However, after the Armenian gangs attacked the Van Castle too, Governor Cevdet Bey sent a letter to the Ministry of Internal Affairs on April 24, 1915, requesting that the Muslim residents of Van be allowed to migrate westwards so that they may be saved from the massacres of the Armenian gangs.

In other words, the date of April 24, over which the Armenians raise hell claiming that it is the “day of genocide”, is actually the date on which a very tough decision had to be made to migrate westward the civilian Muslim population of Van, consisting primarily of women, children and elderly, who sought refuge in the Van Castle so that they could escape the cruelest massacres of the armed Armenian gangs. After a permission was obtained to migrate the civilian Muslim population westward in Anatolia, 80,000 survivors of the Muslim population in Van had to leave their lands and migrate in utter panic and frenzy. Most of these Muslim civilians died on the road due to attacks by Armenian gangs, starvation, and disease. The number of Muslims massacred by Armenians in Van Province only, between 1914 and 1921 was 217,132 people. In each massacre case, the identities of the murderers and the victims are provided in detail in the Ottoman archival records. Ottoman Archives have two recorded volumes of documents totaling 1329 pages, that tell us in explicit details on what day, at what time and in what ways these heinous murders were committed.

The number of Turks who had to migrate to escape the Armenian massacres increased over time and reached to 1,604,038 persons. This number is more than 3.5 times the number of Armenians subjected to forced relocation (438,758 persons), and two-thirds of them (about 1,000,000 people) lost their lives en route. When this number is added to the number of 931,105, which is the number of Turks and other Muslims murdered by Armenians in the regions they inhabited, the number of Turks and other Muslims persons killed, reaches 2 million.

Comparison of the Migration Conditions of Turks and Armenians

The Ottoman Empire provided all possible assistance to the migrating Armenians before, during and after the relocation practice was undertaken. Before the relocation, the property and land left behind by the displaced Armenians were recorded and taken into the protective custody of the State. Perishable goods were sold at local auctions by committees and the proceeds were transferred into protected state accounts on behalf of the owners. Information such as the type, quantity, value of the goods sold, and to whom they were sold were recorded in special books and upon being approved by the committee, reports were kept in two original copies. One copy was provided to the Government and one official copy was provided to the “Abandoned Properties Commission”. 98% of the properties, money and real estate taken into State custody were returned to the Armenian returnees after the end of WWI.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs has taken measures to ensure that the Armenians subjected to mandatory relocation reached their destinations safely. Before commencing the mandatory relocation practice, the Ottoman Government wrote letters to all local provinces, instructing them to take the necessary precautions and stock up on food to meet all the needs of the migrant convoys that would pass through their regions. For this purpose, a budget of 2,250,000 Ottoman Kurush (currency) was allocated to the local sanjaks and provinces. This figure corresponds to nearly 74 billion Turkish Liras in today’s currency.

The Ottoman Empire provided train tickets to the Armenians who were subjected to mandatory relocation, gave an ox cart to each family in places where there was no railway, established food centers in Nusaybin, Rasulayn, Tel-Ermen and Kirkil for the migrant convoys and provided hot meals for them, under wartime conditions where the Ottoman soldiers were fighting on empty stomachs in the Battle of Çanakkale. Ottoman Government even built hospitals to treat sick Armenians. In addition, the elders among the displaced Armenians were paid an allowance of 3 Kurush per day, and their children were paid an allowance of 60 para (currency) per day.

Dispatching of Armenian migrants were halted temporarily after November 25, 1915, due to winter conditions, and permanently on February 21, 1916.

The Ottoman State provided relocated Armenians with deeded houses, arable lands and seeds, tools and capital with which they could practice of their professions in their new places of residence. In addition, the debts of Armenian persons (subjected to mandatory relocation) to the State and private individuals were either frozen or wiped off completely. Also, all criminal proceedings against criminals and suspects of Armenian origin were postponed.

After the end of WWI, the Ottoman Government issued a decree on January 4, 1919, allowing Armenians who were subjected to mandatory relocation to return to their former places of residence. Instructions were telegraphed to the relevant local authorities to ensure the safe transfer of Armenians who wanted to return to their former places of residence and the necessary security precautions were duly taken.

However, Turks, who ended up having to leave their lands and migrate in order to save their lives by escaping Armenian oppression, could not benefit from any of the above-mentioned privileges afforded to Armenian migrants. They had to migrate by their own means. And while migrating, two thirds of the 1,604,031 Turkish migrants lost their lives due to reasons such as attacks by Armenian gangs, starvation, disease and freezing to death.

As the child of a family from Van who left their ancestral lands behind and migrated westward to escape the Armenian massacres, one who lost many martyrs out of his family during this ordeal, I wrote this article to sincerely provide the above facts little known to the Turkish public and the world public at large. I hope that this article, which is based entirely on documented facts, will contribute to exposing the “Armenian genocide” lies and understanding of the real historical facts. And I surely hope that those who unjustly accuse us, Turks, of genocide will at least blush after reading this article, if they have even an ounce of shame left in them.

Assoc Prof. Dr. Ömer Lütfi Taşcıoğlu (Ret. Staff Col., Turkish Armed Forces)

President, FEYM Study Group

APR24_EN.docx Download

May 30, 2024
Pashinyan’s Denialist Bombshell

Pat Walsh To: betneluk@yahoo.co.uk

On 24th April each year Yerevan issues its standard message commemorating the “Armenian Genocide” of 1915. This is usually a matter of routine. But not this year. The statement issued by Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has led to him being called a “denialist” by the Armenian diaspora and the Genocide industry in the US and elsewhere in the West.

Here are the relevant parts of Pashinyan’s statement that have attracted the ire of those with a stake in the Genocide accusation:

“Dear people, dear citizens of the Republic of Armenia,

Today we commemorate the memory of 1.5 million victims of the Armenian Genocide, the Meds Yeghern, who were put to the sword in the Ottoman Empire since 1915 for being Armenians.

This large-scale tragedy took place during the years of the World War I, and the Armenian people, who had no statehood at the time, having lost their statehood centuries ago, had essentially forgotten the tradition of statehood, and became victims of geopolitical intrigues and false promises, lacking first of all a political mind capable of making the world and its rules understandable.

Meds Yeghern became a nationwide tragedy and grief for us, and without exaggeration, is now a predetermining factor for our socio-psychology. Even today, we perceive the world, our environment, ourselves under the dominant influence of the mental trauma of the Meds Yeghern, and we have not been able to overcome that trauma.

This means that… we often relate and compete with other countries and the international community in a state of mental trauma, and for this reason, sometimes we cannot correctly distinguish the realities and factors, historical processes and projected horizons confronting us.

Maybe this is also the reason why we receive new shocks, and relive the trauma of the Armenian Genocide as both a legacy and as a tradition… When talking about the Armenian Genocide, the Meds Yeghern, we always talk to the outside world, but our internal conversation never takes place on this event.

What should we do and what should we not do in order to overcome the trauma of genocide and exclude it as a threat? These are questions that should be the key subject of discussion in our political and philosophical thinking, but this kind of point of view of dealing with the fact of the Meds Yeghern is not common among us.

This is an imperative, an urgent imperative, and we must evaluate the relations between the Meds Yeghern and the First Republic of Armenia, we must relate the perception of the Meds Yeghern with the vital interests of the Republic of Armenia, our national statehood…

We must now stop the searches for a “national homeland” because we have already found that homeland, our Promised Land, where milk and honey flow. For us, the commemoration of the martyrs of the Meds Yeghern should not symbolize the “lost homeland”, but the found and real homeland, in the person of the Republic of Armenia, whose state… policies can prevent a repetition.

Never again! We should not say this to others, but to ourselves. And this is not an accusation against us at all, but a point of view where we, and only we, are responsible for the directing of our destiny and we are obliged to have enough mind, will, and depth of knowledge to carry through that responsibility in the domain of our sovereign decisions and perceptions.

May the martyrs of Meds Yeghern and all our other martyrs be consoled in their permanent sleep by the Republic of Armenia.

And long live the Republic of Armenia.”

It has been noticed that in his statement of April 24th, 2024, the Armenian Prime Minister chose to continually refer to the event the diaspora has been promoting for the last 50 years as “the Armenian Genocide” as Meds Yeghern or “the Great Crime”. He used the Genocide term extremely sparingly, almost in derogatory fashion against its diasporan promoters. Meds Yeghern is the term that Armenians used until the 1940’s to describe the events of 1915 before the term Genocide was coined by Raphael Lemkin and applied by the Armenian diaspora in its campaign for reparations against the Turkish state since the 1970s. Since then, there has been an insistence that the proper and legal term that should be used is “Genocide” or Tseghasbanoutyoun, in Armenian.

What Pashinyan seems to be suggesting is that Armenia should stop its myth-making and deal with the realities of situations as they present themselves. In other words it should stop treating propaganda as fact because propaganda is a poor basis for policy and Armenia’s recent disasters are very much connected with this tendency. In line with this he has suggested, in line with Azerbaijan President Aliyev’s demand, that Armenia adopt a new constitution deleting the references to “Artsakh” and “the Armenian Genocide”.

One of Pashinyan’s top lieutenants’ has also made the suggestion of making a list of all “1.5 million victims of the Armenian Genocide”. This has been seen by the Armenian diaspora as an indirect way of questioning the veracity of the “Armenian Genocide” and part of a policy of appeasment toward Azerbaijan and Turkiye.

The Lemkin Institute, horrified that its raison d’etre has been questioned by the Armenian Prime Minister, no less, issued a very lengthy and detailed statement saying:

“While we do not generally involve ourselves in domestic affairs of states unless there is an internal threat of genocide, we must address concerns stemming from recent statements made by Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan that appear to diverge from fundamental principles of genocide prevention, genocide recognition, and transitional justice, and that directly relate to issues of Armenian national security.”

The Lemkin Institute statement then seeks to refute Pashinyan’s own statement published on April 24th:

“Perhaps most striking about Pashinyan’s statement on the genocide was the absence of any mention of aggressors. In paragraph three, for example, Pashinyan — discussing the period in the Ottoman Empire leading up to the 1915 genocide — cryptically asserted that “…the Armenian people, who had no statehood, had lost their statehood centuries ago, and essentially had forgotten the tradition of statehood, became victims of geopolitical intrigues and false promises, lacking first of all a political mind capable of making the world and its rules understandable.” This statement seems to assert that Armenians mysteriously experienced genocide due to their own witlessness. By asserting that Armenians were solely “victims of geopolitical intrigues and false promises,” Pashinyan further disregards the long-term and multi-layered historical oppression of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as well as the deep and visceral contempt for Armenians among members of the Committee of Union and Progress, the ruling party during the genocide. In other words, Pashinyan’s statement fails to recognize the role played by the ethnic, religious, and cultural animosity for Armenians in the Turkic supremacist campaign of extermination that targeted Armenians during World War I.

Furthermore, instead of attributing blame for the genocide to the leaders of the Ottoman Empire during World War I, Pashinyan redirects attention towards Armenians, and specifically their apparent incapacity to understand politics at the time. He appears to be referencing the actions of the Russian Empire and Western powers during that era, who promised to protect Armenians but did not follow through, which aggravated the Ottoman leaders’ sense of external threat to the empire and drew negative attention to the Armenians as ‘foreign agents’. However, he does not state this outright; instead he seems to believe that Armenians brought the genocide upon themselves by misunderstanding the political terrain. Pashinyan’s talking points in this passage seem ironic, given that he has himself embraced Western offers to save Armenia from its hostile neighbors. Yet, his talking points also echo the official position of Türkiye regarding the Armenian Genocide which justified it by contracting “against an onslaught of external invaders and internal nationalist independence movements”. By parroting the Turkish narrative of the events of 1915-1923, the Armenian Prime Minister risks absolving Türkiye of its responsibility for the Armenian Genocide, downplaying all previous acknowledgment efforts. Further, it may substantially hamper the continuing work on international recognition of the Armenian Genocide and Turkish accountability – something that the worldwide Armenian diaspora, as well as genocide scholars and activists, have been fighting for.

Pashinyan’s argument that “Armenian people, who had no statehood, had lost their statehood centuries ago, and essentially had forgotten the tradition of statehood” inexplicably plays into the denialist agenda of Türkiye and Azerbaijan by obliquely mischaracterizing Armenian efforts to gain equal rights and human security in the Ottoman empire with foolish attempts to exercise a quest for independent statehood for which they had no capacity. The vast majority of Armenians under Ottoman rule were not seeking secession, but rather security and justice. Pashinyan’s words directly echo the official Turkish view of the Armenian people as rebellious “traitors” who collaborated with hostile European powers to bring about the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, and who therefore betrayed the country. In fact, in this passage, Pashinyan seems to be making the case that Armenians can only avoid future genocides by capitulating to present-day Türkiye’s expansionist designs.”

It must be admitted that the Armenian Prime Minister has a better understanding of Armenian history than the propagandists in the Genocide industry.

Just after the Great War of August 1914 began in Europe a delegation of Young Turks attended the 8^thDashnak Congress held at Erzurum, in Ottoman eastern Anatolia. There they made an offer to the Armenians to secure their loyalty in the event of the War coming to the Ottoman territories – so as to preserve stability in the territories in which the Armenians lived.

That the Ottomans should have hosted the Dashnak Congress as the Great War was beginning reveals something about the good intentions of the Committee of Union and Progress (New/Young Turks). For most of the previous decade the Dashnaks had sat in the Ottoman parliament, Armenians had been Ottoman ministers and there had been genuine attempts at reform, which were to be supervised by International inspectors, in the eastern vilayets where the Armenians mostly lived.

At this Congress the Ottomans offered the Dashnaks the thing they had been struggling for over the previous 30 years – autonomy.

The Ottoman Government sent a delegation of 28 CUP members, representing all the ethnic groups of the Empire, including important individuals like Behaeddin Shakir and Naji Bey, to make an offer to the Armenians – who were observed to be moving toward supporting a Russian assault on the Empire.

There is a detailed account of the offer made to the Dashnaks at their Congress in Erzurum in a book written by Morgan Philips Price, a pro-Armenian British Liberal, who later became a Labour M.P. He acted for C.P. Scott as The Manchester Guardian’s Caucasus correspondent during the Great War:

“At the outbreak of the European war the Committee of Union and Progress became all-powerful, and all reform schemes and reconciliation plans fell to the ground. The Armenian party, “Dashnaktsution”, happened to be holding a conference at Erzerum when the war began. Turkey had not yet entered; but at the beginning of August Hilmi Bey, Behadin Shekir Bey, and Nedji Bey were delegated by the Committee to make certain proposals to the Armenians in the event of war with Russia. These delegates arrived at Erzerum at the end of the month, and their first proposal was that the Armenians should observe complete neutrality, the population of Armenia and the Trans-Caucasus doing its military duty, to whatever Empire it owed allegiance.

This the Armenians accepted, and all seemed to point to an agreement. But a few days later the Turks suddenly made another proposal. Turkey, they said, could never be secure until there was a chain of buffer States between her and her arch-enemy, Russia, and they claimed that, if war broke out, the Armenians should assist them in carrying out their plan. They then produced a map of the Middle East in which the following political divisions were made. Russia was to be pushed back to the Cossack steppes beyond the main range of the Caucasus. Tiflis and the Black Sea coast, with Batum and Kutais, were marked as belonging to an autonomous province of Georgia. The central part of the Trans-Caucasus, with Kars, Alexandropol and Erivan, were to be joined to the vilayets of Van, Bitlis, and East Erzerum, as an autonomous Armenia. Eastern Trans-Caucasia, including Baku, Elizabetopol and Dagestan were to become an autonomous province of Shiite Tartars. The Armenians, feeling the impossibility of the Ottoman Empire ever being able to realize such a grandiose scheme… refused to have anything to do with the proposal. So the Young Turk delegates, unable to make any impression in Erzerum, proceeded to Van, where they met with no greater success.

According to statements made to me during 1915 by prominent Van Armenians, it is clear that the action of the Tiflis Dashnakists, about which the Committee of Union and Progress had doubtless been informed by the end of August, was the principal cause of these Turkish demands. Early in August 1914 the Tiflis Armenians seem to have decided that a Russo-Turkish war was inevitable, and thereupon the Dashnakist leaders there at once offered 25,000 volunteers to assist the Russians in conquering the Armenian vilayets.

This offer was made before the outbreak of the war with Turkey, and in the interval the volunteers were busy training and forming at the various centres in the Caucasus. At the end of October, when Turkey came into the war, preparations had been so far advanced that Andranik, the famous revolutionary leader from Turkey, at the head of the first volunteer battalion, took part with the Russians in the advance through North-west Persia, capturing Serai early in November. Meanwhile five more battalions had been formed and were ready to leave for the front, as soon as they could get rifles and equipment. Fifty per cent, of these volunteers were Armenians who had left Turkey, Bulgaria and Roumania since the outbreak of the European war, and had come to the Caucasus to offer their services.

There can be little doubt that this volunteer movement, started under the auspices of the Caucasus Armenians, was the cause of the Young Turk demands on the Armenians of Erzerum, Van and Bitlis for a similar volunteer movement against Russia, and of the subsequent persecution when this demand was refused. Prominent Armenians, whom I met in Van, told me how the attitude of Djevdet Pasha towards them and their people became much more unfriendly as soon as the news arrived that Armenian volunteers were on the front fighting against the Turks. He at once demanded the return of a number of Armenian deserters, whose absence had hitherto been winked at. He accused them of going over to the volunteers with the Russians, and commenced the policy of forcing the Armenians into special labour battalions, where they had very hard work and bad food. Thus the Van Armenians were at the mercy of the Turks, who avenged on them all the rash acts of their kinsmen in the Caucasus.

That their conduct was keenly resented by the Turkish Armenian refugees in the Caucasus, was made clear by some articles in the Van Tosp, the organ of the Van Armenians in Tin as early in 1916. In its issue for January 9th, 1916, Professor Minassian took the Dashnaktsution party to task for having entered into negotiations with the Russian authorities without consulting its kindred societies in Turkish Armenia. It had spread, he said, baseless rumours of a Russian promise of autonomy for Armenia, and then had proceeded to organize volunteer battalions, regardless of the effect that this would have on their kinsmen in Turkey, whose position under the nose of the Turks was very precarious and required tactful handling. He denied that there was any serious negotiation with the Russian Government about Armenian autonomy, and said that the Dashnaktsution leaders of the Caucasus were pretending to represent responsible opinion, whereas they really only represented a group. The Orizon, the organ of the Dashnaktsution in Tiflis, defended itself by saying that the massacre would have happened in any case, and that Prince Vorontsoff Dashkoff had not only verbally promised Armenian autonomy in return for the service of the volunteers, but had actually signed a document to this effect. Whether this document ever existed is however exceedingly doubtful.” (War and Revolution in Asiatic Russia, pp.243-6)

The Armenians turned the Ottoman offer down and instead joined the Tsarist invasion and mounted an insurrection against the Ottoman state. That proved to be a fateful effor with the most tragic of results.

The CUP mission offered the Armenians autonomy in 2 and a half vilayets of East Erzurum, Van and Bitlis plus “Russian Armenia” in return for service in the Ottoman army in the event of war and support from their brethren in Russian territory, who would then, in the event of victory, be part of the larger autonomous region. The offer would be guaranteed by the German Government. The CUP delegation proposed that the Dashnaks aid the Ottoman State by mounting attacks on any Russian invasion behind the lines in Transcaucasia, where an autonomous Armenian state could be founded.

In the 2 and a half vilayets of Turkish Armenia this would have placed around 1 million Muslims under the authority of an autonomous Armenia containing only around 400,000 Armenians. So it was undoubtedly a generous concession on the Ottoman side (see Justin McCarthy, Turks and Armenians: Nationalism and Conflict in the Ottoman Empire, p.10) According to the 1897 Tsarist figures the Armenian population of the autonomous area would have been increased by another 1 million from the Kars, Erivan and Alexandropol Russian guberniyas (although this area would have also contained a sizeable amount of Muslims. By 1917 the Russians counted 1.4 million Christians in Russian Armenia and 670,000 Moslems).

So, an Armenian autonomous region, with “Russian Armenia” included, under Ottoman sovereignty would have perhaps been made viable by a small majority of Armenians – something that all the Armenian territorial claims were incapable of delivering without the extensive ethnic cleansing of Muslims.

This was the concrete realisation, to all intents and purposes, of the deal the Dashnaks had concluded with the Young Turks in 1907. It was more realistic and realisable than the choice the Dashnaks subsequently took in throwing in their lot with Russian expansionism and British Imperialism.

It could be said that the Dashnaks backed the wrong horse, believing it to be the more powerful one, more likely to win. They were taken in by the promises and propaganda of the Triple Entente – Britain, France and Russia – and paid an awful price for it.

Prime Minister Pashinyan, therefore, has a point. Armenians should grasp this historic opportunity to forget altogether about the myths around “Greater Armenia” and instead concentrate all efforts in improving the lives of Armenians living in the actual Armenia. The ideology of “Greater Armenia” and the “Armenian Genocide” combined, at the collapse of the USSR, to impel Armenia to seize a large portion of Azerbaijan where there was a sizeable Armenian population and which Armenian history had taught was a part of “historic Armenia”. In the course of this conquest there were fearsome massacres of Azerbaijani civilians and over 750,000 were driven from their homes to become internally displaced persons in other parts of Azerbaijan. And the US diaspora volunteeers, led by Monte Melkonian, conducted the notorious Khojaly massacre.

The seizure of Karabakh and the surrounding regions and ethnic cleansing of its population was justified not only on irredentist grounds but with reference to the events of 1915. Azerbaijani Turks could not be allowed to live in Karabakh because these “Turks” were, after all the same Turks as 1915!

The “Armenian Genocide” narrative also chained Armenia to its Russian “protector” after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Armenia was in need of a “protector” after what it did in Karabakh in the early 1990s and Moscow was indeed happy to oblige. This had a consequent retarding effect on Armenia’s post-Soviet national independence and development when the route to the West went through Turkiye. Pashinyan is very aware of this.

One of the first acts of the current US President upon coming to power was to recognise the “Armenian Genocide.” And now that same “caller out” of genocides is the essential facilitator of the clearest case of attempted genocide seen in modern times.

Perhaps that is concentrating the mind of the Armenian Prime Minister and making him into something of a statesman.

May 22, 2024
ARMENIAN DEPORTATION IS NOT A GENOCIDE….!

“The fact that there had ben massacres ( of Armenians) is obvious and clear. Everyone agrees on this. Essentially, nobody denies this fact. The important issue here is to define it ( as a genocide or not ). We will discuss this issue at meetings within our party to reach a decision jointly at the end of these discussions and will declare our decision openly ” said the newly appointed Minister of European Affairs Ali Haydar Konca of the HDP Party, of the newly established government which will rule until the Nov. 1st, 2015 elections, at the press meeting on his first day as Minister of European Affairs.

Prof. Dr. S. Rıdvan Karluk
Turgut Özal Üniversitesi

Translated by: Şadi Dinlenç, New York
21 October 2015

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March 17, 2024